Sunday knee-jerk: Stage 1 complete

I’ve tried to come up with some sort of overarching narrative for last night’s win, one of my usual “this is what it means”-type responses that makes it more than just a number in the win column. And after a game like that one, of course, there’s plenty of worthwhile candidates:

Cam Newton accepts the mantle. We saw how ridiculously talented he was against Arkansas St., we saw how willing he was to lower his shoulder and grind out yards against Mississippi St., and we saw how he could rally the team around him (and throw the occasional bomb) against Clemson. But we didn’t see him put all of that together until last night. The box score said he had 176 yards’ worth of rushing on 25 carries, completed 16 of 21 passes for 158 yards and two touchdowns, and no turnovers of any kind. The scoreboard said even more: that this is his offense, through and through, and he’s capable of taking it wherever it needs to go. We haven’t reached the ceiling quite yet, but thanks to Newton, we’re just about close enoug hto touch it.

The defense plays rope-a-dope yet again. Two straight weeks the Auburn defense has been shredded in the first half. Yes, the offense’s various struggles (three-and-outs against Clemson, fumbles against Carolina) didn’t help. But their shoddy outside linebacking play, iffy downfield coverage, and failures in secondary run support helped even less. And at the half, Auburn was on pace to allow 34 and 40 points, respectively. The points they actually allowed were 24 and 27. They haven’t allowed any teams to score more than 7 second-half points since Week 1. I’m not even sure how things changed so thoroughly, other than to say that guys like Bynes, and Fairley, and Carter, and those wizened old vets at safety are only going to be held back so long.

The offensive line finds redemption. Speaking of someone who watched every play of the Clemson game a second, a third, a fourth time, in slow-motion, even frame-by-frame, trust me: there was a reason Gene Chizik called those guys out publicly last week, and to hear Lee Ziemba tell it, did even more than that behind the scenes. They were awful. Then last night, they singlehandedly took Carolina from 1st in the SEC rush defense to 8th. They started slow, but by the second half, Auburn was scoring three touchdowns on drives totaling 24 plays–19 of which were runs. And that’s not counting the 16-play drive that ended in Byrum’s shank. Along with Newton and Dyer, they owned the second half.

But for all of that, what I keep coming back to is just the record. Auburn is 4-0. And essentially 5-0, barring unthinkable and probably flatly impossible disaster against Monroe. The way I see it, there’s three stages to this season:

Stage 1: The roadie at State, the home dates against Clemson and Carolina

Stage 2: The rivalry dates with Arkansas and LSU, the road “traps” at Kentucky and Ole Miss

Stage 3: Amen Corner.

Auburn’s goal: make it to Stage 3 with only one loss, beat Georgia, and make this a one-game season for the SEC West. Stage 1 is finished, and there’s still no losses. There’s still a margin for error. Making that goal is so, so much exponentially more likely with all three of these tests behind us.

That’s the story. That’s the narrative. Auburn began 2010 with a certain kind of season in mind; we can talk about how likely it is they have it until we’re navy in the face, but the thing that matters is that they’ve already taken several huge steps towards it. Newton, and the defense, and the line are what excites us, but the win column is why we might end up remembering that excitement for decades. The same way, you know, we remember the excitement of the tenure of the coach we honored Saturday.

Other assorted observations

— It’s a little scary to consider how good Newton might become when you see how far he’s come in just four weeks. Week 1, those zone-read fakes that tore Carolina to pieces were stiff and not particularly convincing. Last night, he took a hop or two in McCalebb’s direction, held the ball for as long as possible, then pulled and tore up the middle just as the ‘Cocks converged. Plus, does anyone think he was ready to go 16-for-21 (with a couple of semi-drops) two weeks ago? The steps forward are already huge; where are they going to take him by the time his Auburn career is finished?

— Auburn punted more times in their first three possessions against Clemson than they did all last night. On top of that, Auburn finally was forced to grind our drives rather than striking on huge plays (Newton’s first touchdown excepted). The result, despite Auburn finally spending much of the night in up-tempo mode: Auburn out-snapped Carolina 78 to 57. That’s what we’re looking for.

— About the only thing you can say about the fumbles is that at least they didn’t cost us a game. Remember that Eric Smith’s fumble could have easily been scooped-and-scored in the other direction, or at least recovered, and instead was just botched out of bounds. Not a break on the scale of Parker’s missed overtime pass, but huge nonetheless.

I suppose this is also the place to express some sympathy for Mario Fannin. I still want him on the field, I still want him to get the occasional touch … but when you’ve handled the ball just 15 times, only taken a hit on maybe a dozen of those touches, and already given away two critical fumbles, you just can’t be the featured tailback. It has to be a crushing blow for him.

— Hey, six different receivers this week, including the SWEDE KILLA. Remember: if we the fans can look at something and say, “Hey, this is a problem,” there’s an excellent chance the coaches know it’s a problem and are planning acoordingly.

— Speaking of coaches’ planning things, Auburn has outscored its opponents 62-31 after halftime. Whatever else you want to say about both Malzahn and Roof, those guys clearly know what they’re doing when it comes to adjustments.

— Good heavens am I glad to see the back of Jeffery, Gurley, and Garcia before he got knocked around. Is there really that much difference between Jeffery and A.J. Green, Jeffery and Julio Jones? Not that I can see. Yeah, it sucked to see Jeffery dominate like that, but it’s kind of nice to know that Auburn can get dominated like that by a future first-rounder and still wind up victorious anyway.

— Watch ’em while you can:

Your bottom line

With State’s beatdown of Georgia in Starkville, it’s safe to assume Auburn’s faced three quality opponents, and they’ve survived all three; a top-10 ranking is entirely deserved at this stage. But that also means whatever even vague notions Auburn had of flying under the radar are finished; Stage 1 is complete, and that means stage 2 is, by definition, going to be dramatically more difficult. But if Cam Newton and the offensive line can keep doing what they did last night, Auburn will be OK.

“Auburn has outscored its opponents 62-31 after halftime” which is the complete antithesis of points per half/quarter during Tuberville’s time as head coach. Go and look at some of those stats and see how Auburn obliterated teams in the first half then allow all kinds of points in the third and usually be tied for points in the fourth. I could say a lot more concerning that but I’m not going to waste anyone’s time. It’s just such a relief to know that this team can go down a couple scores and has the ability not to just make it close but actually pull out the win. Now if you excuse me I have to go on wood till my knuckles bleed…

I’d been waiting for them to throw to Swede Killa out of the unbalanced line formation, and it looks like Gustav waited until the perfect time to call it. Arkansas looked pretty tough, and I’m afraid he’ll carve our secondary apart. We better hope Cam goes score-for-score with him if we want to have any chance of winning that game.

Jerry, don’t know if you noticed or not but Cam did the Tebow Step, that run fake before passing (on one of those short throws to Lutz I think, maybe even the TD). Dude looked positively monstrous last night. I was thinking that in previous weeks he looked a lot more like early Terelle Pryor, but he’s very quickly acclimating to the SEC and becoming more Tebowesque. Except faster.

That Emory Blake TD was my favorite highlight of the night. Staying on his feet and then riding Wisner’s block into the endzone, it was not the type of play I pictured Blake being able to make. I hope he gets a lot more looks as the season goes on.

Two reasons I feel like we can keep up with Arkansas is Mallett’s problems with pressure in his face (check), and their defense’s difficulty in stopping the run against Bama (check). Mallett will most likely throw three TDs against us, but he’ll throw some picks or fumble the ball, and we’ll be able to keep the ball out of his hands with extended drives like the ones we saw late Saturday.

Also, Arkansas really struggled in the second half against Georgia. Then they struggled again in the second half against Alabama. Both of those games were in Fayetteville. Imagine how much they will struggle in the second half in Auburn after T-Pain suggests to them at the start of the fourth quarter that we are victorious 100% of the time.

WBE
Another point, that I feel sure will come up in your half by half break down- -but correct me if I am wrong- – we saw exactly 0 Kodicats last night, right? There was one long developing first give to McCalebb that was designed to reverse to Kodi and end with Kodi throwing to someone- -that USCe sniffed and McCalebb wisely turned up field and got 2-3 yards.

But as far as a Newton out wide, Kodi in the backfied, traditional Kodicat, I don’t think we saw one the entire game. Gotta say I am relieved. Maybe we won’t see that again outside of UL Monroe and UT Mocs.

Would have felt even better too if Kodi had caught that one ball diving across the middle. I think that was only his 2nd target of the year, the other being that awful interception against Clemson.

I’ll say something else about Newton– Malzahn has said many times that he will make some mistakes being a first year starter, in a new system- -but he rarely makes the mistake again. I think that is playing a large part in the increased productivity in our offense- -and like you said before- -the sky is the limit.

On the defensive side of the ball– I thought in the first series that we were going to kill Lattimore and Garcia as quickly as Fairley was getting in there- -but that sorta dropped off as the game went on. And Hot Boy Carter– come on man. Caused us a fumbleTD and a pic (that we later got anyway) by encroachment. Those would have been big plays, negated by silly penalties.

In case you can’t tell, I’m still coming down off that win, even 24 hours later.

Anyone there see the two dudes with white golf shirts and headsets sort of coralling the players back towards the sidelines between the 3rd and 4th quarter when they went to hype up the student section? Curious if those guys are part of AU’s staff, or if they were part of the refereeing crew? They didn’t do that against Clemson.

Some baffoon commented to me after the Clemson game that the players going to the student section between the 3rd and the 4th was the same as Richt requiring his team to get a celebration penalty at Florida a few years back. Have you ever heard something so dumb? One is during the play on the field, the other is between periods/dead ball/when ESPN is busy taking a 14 minute commercial break. Queue the TPain.

Yeah Emory Blake gives me so much joy! That first guy he made miss on the TD was All-SEC CB Gilmore. Also, Jay Wisner was outstanding in pancaking his guy all the way into the end zone!

A few of my observations:
I’m surely disappointed in Fannin’s play to this point also. On the fumble play all he has to do is follow the monster block by Newton but yet he tried to turn it up the field. I’m sure at some point this season he’ll still have the big play in him though.

That running game was ferocious last night.

Rocker has Auburn’s D-line playing lights out. How about the first two SC plays are tackles for loss against Lattimore?!?!

Shot out to all the posters and WBE who have been constantly calling for the SWEDE KILLA. That TD catch was huge but so was his two other catches.

I read somewhere that some Auburn fans were saying that Kodi Burns needs to be benched for dropping that pass last night. Although it’s not surprising to see fans still bashing KB, it sure does get old. I did notice that he had two crucial blocks on Newton’s long TD run and a nice seal block on a 3rd and 2 McCallebb run. He also was the first to call timeout that time when the play clock was about to expire. He may not be living up to what the fans had in mind as a Tiger but I sure appreciate the storm he’s weathered his career here.

Last but not least, I think the last two weekends have been huge in terms of showcasing our program to potential recruits. War Eagle guys and gals!

Hey WDEwg, my Kodi comment was not directed at you. I posted that before I saw your post. No Kodicat but I’m so glad they just run Cam out of the wildcat now. He trucked a SC safety on one of those TDs and it was so effortless it seemed no one even noticed.

Hasn’t the team running towards the student section with Cam in the lead been done in every game this year? I’m sure they ran towards AU fans at MSU as well. Does anyone know if Cam is the one who started this?

Did anyone else get tired of ESPN showing our offensive sideline signals during their broadcast? I was yelling at the screen “Stop showing our plays!” I don’t know but showing what our staff is doing and the formation charts doesn’t sit well with me. They actually started doing the same thing last year in the Tennessee broadcast and we all know how we played offensively the next few games after Tennessee. It could be nothing but I don’t like this supposed “insight” into Malzahn’s playcalling that seem to want to highlight. (Whew, sorry for the rant.)

Getting rid of the kodicat was huge. I still like kodi because he has earned my respect from the way he has handled himself thru all the BS. He is an Auburn Man and seems to live by the creed. While he can’t throw and is an indecisive runner, he is one hell of a blocker from the WR position and has sprung some big gainers this year.
Holy cow did we finally put it all together offensively??? Sure there were still some turnovers and dumb penalties, but seemingly getting less. Also, I loved the fact that SC only had like 6 plays in the third quarter. Wore that D OUT! Heck last time we played them they didn’t touch the ball in the third quarter…bizzaro. I bet T-Roof was loving the ground and pound while his D rested. Now if we could just get those silly D’backs to turn around and find the ball when the receivers eyes get REALLY BIG! (hint guys-that means the ball is coming)
Anyway more or less 5-0 and headed to trapville.

Yeah, anyone who thinks Burns needs to be benched b/c he couldn’t hang onto a diving catch is an idiot. I agree that the KodiCat is pretty much obsolete with Newton around, but like Fannin, we need Burns to make everything run as smoothly as we need it to run.

BD, if it was possible to figure out what Auburn was doing from a handful of shots of Malzahn’s playcharts, I think we’d be in trouble … since those things are perfectly visible to opponents from the field, right? I don’t think Malzahn has ever hidden them. Some of them are dummies, remember.

That zone read is going to be DANGEROUS down the line against teams that may struggle against the run. Cam was pulling that off near flawlessly, and it was almost a guaranteed positive gainer every time. And if we keep gashing people on that, just imagine what that opens up with Cam’s rocket powered arm. Gustav the Mad Scientist of Football must be analyzing the last drive of the 1st half and entire 2nd half of the Sakerlina game and standing over his creation of Camzilla and saying “It’s alive! It’s ALIVE!”

Believe me- -I don’t want Kodi to be benched. In fact, I think they ought to use him more in the possession receiving range, as he’s got a big body and is a tall target. Running 5-7 yard hitches against soft man? He’d be all over that. And his blocking on the edge has never been lost on me.

I was just glad we didn’t run any straight Wildcat with him, as that package has just severely lost its effectiveness during the year last year, and this year. I see it now as almost a wasted play during a possession. But bench him? No. That would make no sense. His galvanizing influence for the 2009 team will also never be forgotten. It was huge in helping Chizik and company get off to the start they did last year, which helped recruiting, which leads into this season.

I don’t think that is even supposed to be secret. It’s not like they’re hiding that thing. It might be signaling a preferred audible for the play that’s been called or something like that, where even the same “code” might mean different things out of different formations or situations.

Speaking of sideline secrecy: Who else noticed that Sakerlina had a guy dedicated to holding a towel in front of Spurrier so the evil ESPN cameras couldn’t get a straight shot of him on the sidelines? I envision a future where coaches will erect WWII-era pillboxes on the sidelines to prevent anyone from reading their lips during the game.

WDEwg,
Great call in your 2nd paragraph there about the positive fallout from Burns’ galvanizing influence. That notion alone has been more influential on the success of this team than I think any of us realize.

I have to say that, for me, shutting down Marcus Lattimore may be the sweetest part of this victory. I wish hime nothing but the best. I hope he goes on to be the next Emmitt Smith in that he never beats Auburn and always regrets not choosing to play for the Tigers.

Newton’s dive into the end zone is his signature move. You can see it if you watch his juco highlights. Up until this game it didn’t seem that Cam was having much fun, but I believe that dive signaled the official beginning to Cam-ball.

Before this game I had just about conceded that our 2006-2007 offensive linemen (which are the backbone of this team) were very mediocre talents and on any other top 15 team would be backups. But on a team that stopped recruiting eligible lineman after 2007 they are the only option. This game has convinced me the talent is there. I guess they just got soft never being challenged for their job in practice all these years. This is why you never let a player, even a good player, stop feeling the heat.

“if it was possible to figure out what Auburn was doing from a handful of shots of Malzahn’s playcharts, I think we’d be in trouble … since those things are perfectly visible to opponents from the field, right?”

Okay thanks WBE. I guess that was just my super-paranoia when it comes to all things AU. Maybe that’s one less thing to rag on ESPN about when they broadcast our Tigers.